Deer Creek Dam is located on the Provo River about 16 miles northeast of Provo, Utah. It is a zoned earthfill structure 235 feet high with a crest length of 1,304 feet. The dam contains 2,810,000 cubic yards of material and forms a reservoir of 152,570 acre-foot capacity. The spillway is a concrete chute at the right abutment controlled by two radial gates. The capacity of the spillway is 12,000 cubic feet per second. The outlet works through the left abutment is a concrete-lined tunnel from the trashrack to the gate chamber, from which two steel pipes lead to the powerplant. Releases are controlled by two tube valves. The outlet works has a capacity of 1,500 cubic feet per second.

Geology

The dam and outlet works tunnel are founded in limestone, shaley limestone, and quartzose sandstone of the Pennsylvanian Oquirrh Formation. Rock units dip upstream at 30 degrees. Alluvial deposits up to 86 feet deep underlie the shells of the dam and spillway. A positive cutoff was achieved by excavation a cutoff trench through the river alluvium, grouting the foundation rock, and constructing a concrete cutoff wall. The rock was fractured, but no faults were found in the foundation. An additional shallow cutoff trench was excavated beneath the zone 2 downstream of the core to remove a 4-to15-foot-thick sequence of clay and organic material.